Story: Nation and government

Cartoon from the MMP campaign (2nd of 3)

Cartoon from the MMP campaign

Opponents of MMP, who wanted to retain the first-past-the-post system, feared that unstable, indecisive governments would result if the proportional system of MMP was adopted. Peter Shirtcliffe was one of the leaders of Campaign for Better Government (CBG), which opposed the idea of MMP. This cartoon refers to a controversial CBG television advertisement featuring 21 anonymous, hooded politicians which capitalised on public antipathy to increasing the number of MPs from 99 to 120.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: H-014-017
Cartoon by Laurence Clark ('Klarc')

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

John Wilson, 'Nation and government - The electoral system', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/cartoon/2494/cartoon-from-the-mmp-campaign (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by John Wilson, updated 1 Sep 2016